Pain
by Esherymack
Summary: Ever wonder what happens when Cross is the one in trouble? Allen learns that his master is not invincible while traveling to another town. Parentalish Cross, no yaoi. Involves blood, stitches, cursing, and fighting. Starts off humourous, and it ends more serious. Timcampy to the rescue, by the way. Oneshot.


"Pain," Cross-n-Allen, Parentalish Cross, and blood.

Generally, things are pretty hectic in Cross and Allen's life, and besides mornings, things can never be foreseen. Cross fails to realize this, sadly, and ends up hurt. How does Allen react when, for once, he's _not _the one in trouble?

A/N: So, it was requested to me by a reviewer that I continued "The Daily Grind", and while I cannot think of any possible way to continue from where I left off yesterday (Okay, I was never planning on elaborating on it, it was just a simple one-shot XD), I guess it's worth my time to add a few more things here and there. So, without another delay, I hereby unveil this: "He's Human," also known as "Pain," which IS slightly parental. I was just… y'know, thinking about Cross and Allen, and how Allen's always like "that man is the devil himself D:" and all, and was like… "What the hell would happen if Cross got hurt for once? O:"

Admit it, you've never considered this in any great detail. Neither have I XD

Okay, we probably all did after he was shot in the manga. I mean, I cried . But that's the only time I ever recall seeing Cross bleed. Ever.

Disclaimer: Don't own D. Gray-man; it belongs to Katsura Hoshino.

Warning: Blood and language. And stitches. There's also a lot of randomness as to what Allen's immunity to Akuma Virus can do for other people (i.e. Stuff that it can't do goes on). Also, this one is long. And, I broke Allen's eye, so he doesn't detect the Akuma coming. I guess. I don't know. Lol.

**Bolds are Cross's thoughts.**

_Italics are Allen's thoughts._

_**Let's make bold italics the Akuma's few thoughts.**_

This starts of humourous, but it will turn serious.

* * *

**This day is too normal, **Cross thought as he practically waltzed down the street, his idiot disciple trailing behind him. A couple of women swooned, but Cross paid them no heed: He and Allen had to be in the next town by nightfall, or else they were behind schedule. He didn't have time to find a woman to pass the time with.

**Wait. That made no sense.**

Cross shrugged to himself. He noticed Allen giving him an odd look. "What!?"

"N-nothing, you're just… being weird."

"I'm not weird."

"Yeah, but you're acting like it."

"I am not!"

"Yeah, y'are…"

Unfortunately for the two, their ongoing banter consisting merely of _Uh-huh!_'s and _Nuh-uh!_'s quickly drew the attention of a patrolling Akuma. It turned its borrowed head towards the childish commotion and grinned to itself.

_**Why, a general… the Earl will be so pleased with me~**_, the Akuma thought. It gazed swiftly at the bustling crowds before it scurried off, staying quite far behind the pair of arguing exorcists.

* * *

_Master… We left at noon, and it's 5 PM now… can we please just stop for the day? _Allen mentally pleaded to his caretaker. Their stupid argument over whether or not Cross was acting strangely had been abandoned long ago, and now Allen was merely exhausted. He felt as if holes had been worn in his shoes. There were little, annoying bugs flying around, much to Timcampy's pleasure, but the continually bit Allen, leaving itchy red welts on his hands, neck, and face.

The General kept a fast pace, and always remained at least three feet in front of his apprentice, even with Allen following him at a jog. Allen usually had no problem with this, but today, Cross kept starting and stopping, causing Allen to keep bumping into his back.

Cross came to a sudden halt for about the thousandth time. Allen clenched his jaw. "Would'ya stop that!" he snapped.

"Stop what?" Cross said, arching his visible eyebrow at his apprentice.

**I swear, something's been watching me all day.**

"Starting and stopping! It's weird!"

"You do realize that just telling me what's bothering you is just going to make me keep doing it, right?"

"_Ugh, _you're so immature sometimes!"

Cross smirked. Allen continued his rant.

"Also, you keep humming that little tune over and over again! And these bugs keep biting me, and I'm itchy all over, and my feet hurt, and it's like _ninety fucking degrees out here,_ and I swear to God, something is watching me!"

**So I'm not the only one who feels like that.**

With a huff, Allen sat down on… well, on Cross's toes, as if that could help keep the larger, stronger man from moving at all. With a sigh of defeat, Cross kicked Allen off of his feet and sat down at the base of a nearby tree.

Allen blinked in surprise. "We're actually stopping?"

"For the time being, yes."

Allen blinked. _He's compliant. Why the fuck is he compliant. What did I do right this time?_

Allen just scowled and sat down next to his master. The general folded his hands and stared at the leaves above him.

"Would you _stop it with the humming now?"_

"I still don't know what you mean by that. I don't hum."

"Then explain why you've been humming all day!"

"…I just said… that I haven't?"

Cross and Allen picked up the same childish banter from the hours prior. The Akuma watching them took this chance to attack. It leapt from the bushes with a scream, shedding its skin in the process, and revealing a rather bulky Level 2.

Allen stared at the Akuma that had finally made its grand entrance, with some major processing as to what just popped out of the trees going on behind his eyes. Cross, on the other hand, caught off guard for once, scrambled to his feet and fumbled for Judgment. The Akuma took this opportunity of having one exorcist having no idea what was going on and the other being shocked to let loose its virus on Cross in the form of two long gashes from its claw, eerily similar to Allen's Innocence.

Allen finally jumped to his senses and activated his Innocence, parrying the next swipe from the Akuma with practiced ease. Hours of dodging bullets (literally—Cross 'trained' him by shooting at him) and mock fights using swords and clubs that Cross somehow managed to produce and then hide with no effort made the Akuma's clumsy second attack simple. Allen watched as Cross staggered back, his chest bleeding, and thin black outlines beginning to cascade over his skin.

Allen scowled and blocked another swipe. This one was harder, and better aimed. The claws grew larger, suddenly, and one scraped feebly against Allen's cheek. The Akuma drew back, grinning evilly, and Allen stepped forward, bringing his own claws down full-force on its head. The Innocence-infused nails tore into the Akuma, and Allen leapt backwards, avoiding the counter-attack.

Allen stole another glance at his master. The man had collapsed now, one hand pressed against his chest. The black outlines were beginning to take more shape and appeared more solid, forming pentagrams.

_Shit,_ Allen swore to himself. He raised his claw and engaged the Level 2 again, narrowly avoiding his own injuries at the mercy of the mirrored claw. He pulled back his arm and—_Too late!_ He pulled to the side, the Akuma's claw barely missing his face, but tearing his shoulder before being draw in again. He saw his reflection in the bloody hand—the talons were like polished adamant, and acted as a mirror to Allen. His eyes were wide, and a scrape rested under his eye. Black swirls were in the process of gathering at the pentacle over his eye.

The Akuma paused. It lifted its head to the sky, as if it were smelling something, before it hissed at Allen. "I'll be back…~" it said before it tore off through the trees, leaving carnage in its trail.*

Allen deactivated his arm and rushed over to Cross. His master was breathing feebly, black stars now beginning to radiate out from the two wounds stretching from Cross's left shoulder nearly to his right hip. Allen grabbed his master's shoulders and pulled him upright from his slouch, leaning in to his face. "Master Cross! Can you hear me?"

The general lifted his head slightly. "Fuck… twenty years of being an Exorcist, and this is the only time I ever manage t'get hurt…" he said, voice slightly slurred, as if he were becoming inebriated. Allen shook him, and Cross seemed to become slightly more alert.

Allen saw the grayish pentagram-stars beginning to darken. He remembered what he saw in the Akuma's claw a scant minute before now. "I-I'm gonna try something…" he mumbled, eyeing the wounds distastefully before he pressed his hands into the bloody mess that his master's chest had become. The general winced and flinched away, and Allen immediately felt bad. He pushed his morals out of his mind for the time being, though, and focused more immensely on drawing out whatever the black stars were made of instead.

The thing that scared him the most, he supposed, was that his idea was working, and that the black stars on Cross were now slightly fading, or, in the case of those closest to Allen's hands, working their way up Allen's arms, where he presumed they would flow into the pentacle scar, like the ones from his shoulder wound.

As soon as the virus appeared to have vanished, he saw Cross relax somewhat. He lifted his hands slowly from where he had pressed them into the red, bloody skin, and examined the blood on his own hands. "M-master, you need a doctor…" he said, hoarsely.

_Master Cross… is wounded? H-how can he possibly be hurt?! He's hardly human… he-he's some kind of freak demon that happens to be invincible! That Akuma did this to him… yet every damn thing I've ever done by means of getting rid of him…_

Allen's mind rambled on and on, and he felt something akin to fear and worry clogging up his throat.

"Master?"

Cross inhaled deeply. The action caused the wounds on his chest to widen, and then shrink. Allen felt bile rise in his throat; the whole appearance was grotesque. He refused to allow his stomach take over his mind—some of Cross's wiser words stuck in his mind: "If you freak out in a serious situation, nothing good will come of it. You need to learn to keep your head in bad situations."

Allen was pretty sure it was the only time he _hadn't _seen Cross drunk enough to forget his own name for any long periods of time.

"Kid… y'got no idea how t'handle this, don't you…"

Cross's usually loud, imposing, baritone was hardly more than a whisper. Allen noticed the wetness at his knees—_Jesus Christ, he's lost a lot of blood, _Allen's mind whispered.

Timcampy snapped at Allen's hovering fingers, drawing his attention. The golem was tugging at something in one of the satchels usually carried by Allen. The teen drew it out and saw with relief it was a roll of bandages. He grabbed the satchel and began to rifle through the various items in it, before he looked at Tim again. "D'you know what I'll need?" he asked the golem. He was pleasantly surprised that his voice didn't quaver like it had been; the bandages had been reassuring. Even if there wasn't anything else of use in the bag, at least with bandages, Allen could bind Cross's wounds to last until the next town.

Timcampy clambered over the edge of the leather container and fluttered out a moment later with a needle and waxed thread. Allen gazed at the items uncertainly. "I… uh… I've never had to give someone stitches before…"

Timcampy bared his fangs at Allen, and Allen figured he might as well learn—quickly.

_It can't be much harder than sewing… my only problem is that it's on another human being._

Allen scowled at the metal instrument in his hand. _Right… uh, fire. Master always carries a lighter on him… _

Allen began to gently rifle through the many pockets of Cross's coat. With limited success, he threaded the needle through the fabric of his pants and managed to pull Cross up enough so that he could pull his arms out of the garment. The whole time, Allen couldn't help but notice one thing he had never seen in his master's face before: pain.

Cross's white shirt was completely ruined; Allen pulled the remaining scraps off of Cross's torso. He then returned to searching Cross's pockets. He finally found the silver-and-gold lighter inside the lapel pocket. With a confident hand, he threaded the needle before he struck the lighter. As he ran the flame along the needle, as he'd seen Cross do before, he hesitated.

_Seriously… what if I screw this up?_

Allen looked at Cross's wounds again. He pushed his fears aside, as he so often had to do while with Cross. He examined the edges of the wound, and pulled the skin back into place where it belonged, ignoring any sign that Cross was indeed feeling this.

Despite his worry, Allen found that he had some sort of gruesome, sick pleasure in hearing Cross's pain. It reminded him that this coldhearted man he lived with was indeed human, and was as capable of feeling pain as he was everything else.

Sighing, Allen set to work.

* * *

By the time he had finished, night had nearly fallen, and Allen could have sworn Cross lost even more blood than he had with his wounds open. Allen sat back on his heels, examining his handiwork. There were a few crooked stitches here and there, but they held the wounds closed, which, in essence was their job. Allen picked up one of the many flasks of water that Cross carried—marked separately from those containing alchohol—and emptied it over the dried blood on Cross's chest. Slowly, the brownish crust peeled off, and it removed some of the pallor from Cross's complexion.

Allen used a cleanish scrap of what had been Cross's shirt to dry the area before he bound a bandage around his master's chest. The General complied yet again in his apprentice's request by leaning slightly forward, before he collapsed gratefully against the tree. He let his eye drift shut in weariness.

Before he fell into a deep slumber, Cross managed two words: "Thank you."

* * *

It was in the next nearest town that General Marian Cross awoke, shirtless, with fresh sutures and bandages wrapped around his chest. His coat was folded neatly on a bedside table. Timcampy rested there, and when Cross awoke, the golem seemed firmly affixed to Cross's person.

Allen wasn't anywhere in sight.

**What… where?**

The door opened and the idiot apprentice in question appeared, meek, but well-rested. A faint scab marked the teen's cheek, and a bandage was visible under his shirt, wrapping his shoulder. "Master Cross!" he said, almost attacking his master, but remembering his wounds at the last moment and pulling himself to a halt. "Thank goodness you're awake, I was worried you were dead, are you feeling okay? I did what I could, but…" Cross blocked out whatever he was saying, focusing instead on the fact that his idiot apprentice had actually managed to keep his head. If he hadn't… well, Cross would be dead.

"Allen?" Cross huffed.

"And… yeah?"

"Just shut up. Please, just for now," Cross grumbled, grabbing Allen and pulling him close. His apprentice was shocked into silence.

"Thanks for saving my life, kid."

Allen closed his eyes and gingerly leaned into the embrace. "You're… welcome, Master Cross."

* * *

Fin~

I hope that was good XD I got the idea for the Akuma from Allen's first mission with Kanda, with Mater. The Akuma that took Allen's appearance… that's where I got the idea.

That's what the * was for, by the way XD

Please R&R :3


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